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Somehow, the New Orleans Saints found a rookie Pro Bowl returns specialist in undrafted free agency. Deonte Harris has been a revelation for the Saints in 2019 despite his overlooked pedigree as a NCAA record-setter out of Assumption College (a small liberal arts school in Worcester, Mass.). Harris missed two games with a hamstring injury and still leads the NFL in punt return yards (298, the most of any player in the Sean Payton era), ranking second-best in yards per punt return (9.9). He’s also ranked seventh overall in kick return yards (494) and sixth in yards per kick return (24.7).
And he’s a headache for Tennessee Titans coach Mike Vrabel to prepare for. The Titans have one of the NFL’s worst punt coverage units, allowing the sixth-most yards gained per punt return (9.3). They’re more of a middle-of-the-pack squad when covering kickoffs (22.3 yards allowed per kick return) with a season-long of just 32 yards. Still, Harris has proven he has the acceleration to punish teams that can’t maintain lane discipline or are slow to crash down on him.
It’s something Vrabel is well aware of. He’s done his homework on the Saints special teams unit and Harris in particular; when asked to describe the rookie Pro Bowler during his conference call with New Orleans media, Vrabel was mindful of Harris’s skills and the group the Saints have surrounded him with: “Very fearless. They’ve got a very good special teams group. They’ve blocked punts. They have returned kicks for touchdowns, and Harris is explosive and he’s tough, and he is physical. That is a pretty good quality to have as far as (a) returner.”
Still, finding success on special teams requires more effort that you can get out of a one-man band. The Saints have invested a lot of resources in revamping their performance in the third phase of the game, and Vrabel credited them for that, continuing, “Like I said, they have a lot of great special teams players, (J.T.) Gray, (Justin) Hardee, (Taysom) Hill and obviously (Dwayne) Washington because of blocked punts and their gunners are excellent. With the kickers, Pro Bowl kicker (Wil Lutz), (and with Thomas Morstead) obviously a great punting team as well.”
Whether the Saints special teams units have a great day against the Titans can’t be said yet. Things look terrific on paper, but they still have to play the game, and New Orleans knows as well as any team that there’s no such thing as a guaranteed win — remember that time a 1-7 Atlanta Falcons team beat the 7-1 Saints at home, coming off of a bye week? At least the Saints have remained focused since that upset. If they can carry over the positive momentum they established on Monday night against the Indianapolis Colts, things just might go according to plan.
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